Adored by his sisters and doting grandmother, but viewed as a burden by his widower father Hashem (Mahjoub), 8-year-old Mohammad (Ramezani) is a vivacious student at a Tehran school for the blind, with an aptitude for Braille transcription and a keen sense of how to read the world around him through sound. Home for a three-month break, Mohammad enjoys the company of his extended family on a sojourn to the mountains, but his father — an impoverished laborer who plans to take a new wife — has other plans for his son.

Director Majidi strikes just the right balance between naturalist drama and conventional tearjerker with this heartrending drama about an urban pauper who leaves his disabled son in the care of a blind carpenter. The young Ramezani is miraculous as Mohammad. The film's best scenes show the sightless boy communing with nature, magically clutching a feather in mid-air, or coming to the rescue of an ailing bird. With its gigantic heart resting in a tiny pair of hands, "Color" is a moving ode to the realm of the senses.